Medical Mutual's 'Dieting for Dollars'
Medical Mutual's 'Dieting for Dollars'
Monica Robins Updated: 6/9/2010 12:57:31 PM Posted: 6/8/2010 5:48:31 PM
CLEVELAND -- How much money would it take to get you to lose weight and get healthy? Would you do it for a boost in your paycheck? About a third of American businesses offer some sort of incentive to encourage employees to get healthy.
Medical Mutual, the state's largest health insurance company, knows first-hand the cost of poor health.
For the last five years, they've rewarded employees with points for participating in wellness programs. At the end of each year, employees can then cash in for benefits, such as a premium reduction or a gift card.
Medical Mutual president and CEO Rick Chiricosta wanted to get in shape himself, so he challenged his employees to join him.
"I thought, if I went public with my need to do something, it would put pressure on me to make sure I did what I needed to do," Chiricosta says.
It started in January and the "Chiricosta Weight Loss Challenge" helped Jolynn Isaac lose 39 pounds, but she didn't do it for the $2,500 prize money.
"It's a big motivator to know that there were going to be a lot of other employees losing weight and wanting to lose weight and I'm a very competitive person," Isaac says.
The company's health risk assessment informed Kenitha Sims that she had hypertension. She lost 43 pounds, thanks to a company-paid Weight Watchers program and the boss's challenge. A chance for a cash prize helped keep her motivated.
"Personally, I think the benefit of the incentive helps me to lose weight," Sims says.
However, critics and psychologists say people are more motivated by losing their own money than by winning someone else's but that's not what they've seen at Medical Mutual.
"Rewarding is much more positive when you tend to go to a dis-incentive rather than a positive incentive. We see a lot of 'Big Brother' kind of feelings develop," says Paula Sauer, Medical Mutual VP of care management.
Chiricosta agrees negative reinforcements may work short-term but won't help morale.
"We believe healthy happy employees are better employees and take better care of our customers," he says.
Medical Mutual created a healthy cultural change and says their research shows incentive programs work. More than half of the employees are taking part in the weight-loss challenge.
It may also be why 85 percent of their 1.5 million customers use some type of wellness program offered through the insurance company.
